mini burgerThe last 3-years has been a wild ride for Sacramento-based entrepreneurs Davin Vculek and Joseph Blanton. Since starting their first food truck serving-up mini burgers in 2011, they’ve aggressively expanded the Krush Burger brand into other areas, including quick service restaurant locations, multiple food trucks, a franchise opportunity, and an international location in Dubai. They even found the time to buy their own commissary to manage their growing fleet of trucks.

While partners Vculek and Blanton launched their business just a few short years ago, they are not new to the restaurant industry. Vculek was an executive chef for Guy Fieri of Food Network fame and Blanton worked at the food product supplier and distributor Sysco prior starting the business.

In today’s episode, I sit down with co-founder of Krush Burger, Davin Vculek. In this interview Vculek shares the brand concept was developed back in culinary school, how massive expansion into other areas beyond a food truck was always part of the plan, and what he envisions is coming next for the business. Vculek also shares hard-won advice about name selection for your business to ensure it doesn’t need to be changed after you’ve built a name locally.

Quotes From The Show

I guess I get bored with not doing 100 hours a week. – Davin Vculek on growing the Krush Burger business.

If your concept is simple enough that you can execute it that’s really key for a food truck.  You can focus on making everything perfect, but if you can focus on keeping your labor down, your costs down, you can really fine tune your business. – Davin Vculek on making the transition from owner/operator to hiring employees so you can focus on growth. 

hungry customers

Hungry line of customers outside the Krush Burger truck.

What You’ll Learn

  • How Krush Burger differentiates their concept from other burger joints
  • Why serving something simple is critical if one of the goals is to execute a high-volume of sales
  • The importance of keeping labor costs low to ensure profitability
  • Tips for transitioning from a owner/operator to hiring employees and
  • Why you should receive comments back from a trademark office prior to investing your time and money into branding
  • An overview of what it’s like to transition from traditional food truck to starting a franchise opportunity
  • The importance of developing manuals and operating procedures when starting a franchise.. and continually updating them.
  • Why you must consult a franchise lawyer that understands how to structure this type of business from a legal standpoint
  • The characteristics of a successful franchise owner and why you need to be selective when choosing someone to represent the brand.
  • How Krush Burger got their franchisee into the international location of Dubai

Mentioned in the Podcast

Krush Burger – The official website. Order t-shirts, book catering, and get a better understanding of the Krush Burger brand here.

Krush Burger Twitter –  Keep tabs on the latest news and see where the Krush Burger trucks will be located next.

Guy Fieri –  Davin Vculek’s boss prior to launching Krush Burger.

Sysco –  Joseph Blanton’s employer prior to Krush Burger.

Restaurant Franchise Checklist –  Small Business Administration’s (SBA) guide to starting a restaurant franchise.

Food Truck Insurance Quote – Complete the form to have a food truck / trailer insurance quote sent straight to your inbox.

Want to start your own food business?

Hey! 👋I’m Brett Lindenberg, the founder of Food Truck Empire.

We interview successful founders and share the stories behind their food trucks, restaurants, food and beverage brands. By sharing these stories, I want to help others get started.

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